Last week saw Nintendo’s lawyers rouse themselves from slumber and roar forth at Pocketpair’s wildly successful critter-catching survivalbox Palworld as the company filed a patent lawsuit in Japan, leaving the smaller studio confused and fans worried about the game’s future.
While we’re likely years from any resolution and possibly weeks from knowing more details about the suit itself, legal analysts have weighed in with their thoughts on the whole matter, and most of them seem to agree that Pocketpair is facing a challenging fight.
Much of the potential patent infringement circles back to a patent filed in 2021 that explains in extremely granular terms the process of throwing a spherical object at an in-game creature in a 3-D space to capture it. Additional reporting points out how four divisional patent applications were filed by Nintendo shortly after Palworld launched and were accelerated through the approval process, presumably in order for Nintendo to firm up its infringement case.
According to Japanese patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara, this ball-throwing patent represents a “killer patent” that’s nearly impossible to avoid and could prove harmful if game devs are not careful. Analyst and Kantan Games consulting firm lead Serkan Toto also agrees with the strength of Nintendo’s case, saying in an interview that Nintendo has likely plotted out multiple technical details and prepared for every possible counter-argument.
There’s also the possibility that The Big N is threatened, angry, and likely coming to hurt Pocketpair financially. “You can bet your life that Nintendo hates this company, and they couldn’t find an angle with the character designs,” Toto is quoted as saying. “This is why they are not mentioned in their press release. So they come with these technical peculiarities.”
Finally, there’s precedent: Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Colopl, the developers of the mobile game White Cat Project, over patent infringements in 2017, which resulted in a three year-long battle that ended with Colopl owing Nintendo about $20M and patent license fees.
Meanwhile, Palworld has apparently been removed from this year’s Tokyo Game Show, where it was rumored that Pocketpair would announce a PS5 version of the survivalbox. Sony has yet to provide a comment, and Pocketpair has not issued any other statements since word of the lawsuit first came out last week.
If I'm reading this correctly, here is a Nintendo patent from 2021 for a video game character throwing an item to catch a monster while out in the field https://t.co/7Dvicj2lnc pic.twitter.com/rM6Ak45K0k
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) September 19, 2024
